Hundreds of homes remained without power on the North Yorkshire moors and parts of County Durham on Thursday, as suppliers worked to restore electricity after strong winds and heavy snowfalls brought down cables and closed roads.

With parts of Britain stumbling towards a wintry Easter just as widespread hosepipe bans came into force in others, engineers worked round the clock while emergency and Red Cross workers provided snacks and hot drinks to families in the worst affected areas.

Temperatures were expected to remain low even though forecasters predicted a calmer holiday weekend following the cold snap that brought chaos to Scotland, the Peak District and north-east England. Roads across the Pennines and between Sheffield and Manchester were closed on Wednesday and farmers struggled to get to their lambs.

Nearly 40,000 homes in Northumberland, Durham and North Yorkshire were hit by power cuts on Wednesday and Northern Powergrid said 1,700 customers remained without electricity on Thursday after the heaviest April snowfalls in the region for 30 years.

"We would like to apologise to those customers still experiencing power supply problems and to reassure them our engineers are working as hard as possible to restore supplies as soon as possible," the company said.

Power has been restored to about 9,000 homes cut off by the wintry weather in the Peak District, according to Western Power Distribution.

Forecasters expect cloud and patchy rain in Scotland and Northern Ireland but southern England could experience frostier overnight temperatures than the north, a prelude to a sunny but cold Good Friday morning both in the south and in Wales. That's the end of the good news: cloud, light rain and patchy drizzle could affect most areas by evening.